O.C.'s death row: Tied to anchor, tossed overboard

March 11, 2011

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Skylar Deleon, left September 2006, right unknown date, a former bit-part child actor and an AWOL Marine, was sentenced to death for murdering Thomas and Jackie Hawks, who were tied to an anchor and thrown overboard in a botched plot to steal their yacht in November 2004, and the separate murder-for-money of Jon Peter Jarvi, who was slashed to death on a remote Mexican highway in December 2003, a day after he was enticed to give Deleon $50,000 in cash in a phony get-rich-quick scheme. CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; TEXT BY LARRY WELBORN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Skylar Deleon at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach after being charged with soliciting to kill two witnesses and killing Jackie and Thomas Hawks in this 2006 file photo. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Murder victims Thomas and Jackie Hawks.

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Ryan Hawks, the son of Thomas and Jackie Hawks, talks at a news conference at the Newport Beach Police Department about his feelings after it was announced that three men had been arrested in connection with the murder of his parents. When asked whether he felt the defendants who were accused of killing his parents for profit deserved the death penalty, he simply said, "I just want justice." Booking mugs, from left, of defendants Skylar DeLeon, Alonso Machain and Myron Gardner Sr. are taped to the podium. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Detective David Byington of the Newport Beach Police Department, wearing booties and gloves, walks through the kitchen area of the yacht Well Deserved. The counter at left is where Thomas and Jackie Hawks were brought up one at a time and forced to sign documents transferring over the ownership of the yacht. The stairway at the right is where Skylar Deleon sat with his laptop inputting the Hawkses' bank account numbers and PIN numbers. LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

One of the defendants in the disappearance of Tom and Jackie Hawks, Skylar Deleon talks with his attorneys during his arraignment at Harbor Court in 2005. MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Deleon was also found guilty in the separate murder-for-money of Jon Peter Jarvi on Dec. 27, 2003. Jarvi, 45, of Anaheim, was slashed to death on a remote Mexican highway a day after he was enticed to give Deleon $50,000 in cash in a phony get-rich-quick scheme. ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE

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John Fitzgerald Kennedy, left September 2006, right August 2009, a Long Beach gang member and former youth pastor, was sentenced to death for his role in helping Skylar Deleon subdue yacht owners Thomas and Jackie Hawks in November 2004. The couple were forced to sign sales documents for their yacht before they were tied to an anchor and thrown overboard while they were still alive. Kennedy signed on to the murderous mission at the last moment when Deleon promised him thousands of dollars. The crime actually netted just a few hundred. CA DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS; TEXT BY LARRY WELBORN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Sandra Hawks, at left, Thomas Hawks' sister-in-law, and Casey Gayl, wife of Thomas Hawks' cousin, right, smile as they leave the court arm in arm after John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 43, was given the death penalty. He was convicted of first-degree murder for killing Thomas Hawks and his wife, Jackie Hawks, in November 2004. LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Skylar Deleon, left September 2006, right unknown date, a former bit-part child actor and an AWOL Marine, was sentenced to death for murdering Thomas and Jackie Hawks, who were tied to an anchor and thrown overboard in a botched plot to steal their yacht in November 2004, and the separate murder-for-money of Jon Peter Jarvi, who was slashed to death on a remote Mexican highway in December 2003, a day after he was enticed to give Deleon $50,000 in cash in a phony get-rich-quick scheme. CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; TEXT BY LARRY WELBORN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The Orange County Register is publishing summaries of the 58 killers sentenced to death by Orange County judges, two per day during weekdays, from the oldest case to the newest. Here are Nos. 49 and 50:

2009

Skylar Deleon, a former bit-part child actor and an AWOL Marine, was sentenced to death for murdering Thomas and Jackie Hawks, who were tied to an anchor and thrown overboard in a botched plot to steal their yacht in November 2004. Deleon was also convicted in a separate murder-for-money incident of Jon Peter Jarvi, who was slashed to death on a remote Mexican highway in December 2003 – a day after he was enticed to give Deleon $50,000 in cash in a phony get-rich-quick scheme.

2009

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a Long Beach gang member and former youth pastor, was sentenced to death for his role in helping co-conspirator Skylar Deleon subdue yacht owners Thomas and Jackie Hawks in November 2004. The couple were forced to sign sales documents for their yacht before they were tied to an anchor and thrown overboard while they were still alive. Kennedy signed on to the murderous mission at the last moment when Deleon promised him thousands of dollars. The crime netted just a few hundred.

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